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Barbra Streisand was just about the last person Hollywood biographer William J. Mann ever thought he would spend a few years of his life researching and writing about.

Unlike an older generation of gay men, Mann came of age long after "Funny Girl" -- the 1964 Broadway show and the 1968 movie -- established Streisand as a new singing and acting gay icon in the tradition of Judy Garland.

"Most of what I knew about Streisand were things like `The Way We Were' and the more contemporary stuff, which didn't interest me," the Darien biographer said in a recent interview about just-published "Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisand" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $30).

Mann established his reputation for new takes on old stars in widely praised books about Katharine Hepburn ("Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn") and Elizabeth Taylor ("How to Be a Movie Star") that serve up fresh insights into the process of achieving and maintaining a show business career rather than simply repeat the scandals and legends that have filled so many other Hollywood books.

When his editor suggested that Mann follow his Elizabeth Taylor book with one about Streisand, "I said that I wasn't a huge fan. With Hepburn and Taylor, I was fascinated. I never really `got' Streisand."

The editor asked the writer to think about it and sent Mann links to videos of early performances by the star that knocked him out and made him think about how amazing it was for a very determined but very unconventional-looking 19-year-old Brooklyn girl to become a superstar by the time she was 24.

By delving into the private papers of such important directors as Jerome Robbins and Bob Fosse, Mann also learned that some of the often-repeated stories involving Streisand's ascent to stardom were simply untrue.

Streisand arrived during the heyday of Doris Day and Audrey Hepburn when "ethnic" female performers were relegated to character roles or playing the best friend of a star.

The Brooklyn girl was proud of her Jewish heritage and never considered the "nose job" that some aspiring actresses underwent before planning their assaults on Broadway or Hollywood.

"What got me interested was the early Barbra, and I told my editor, `THAT I would be interested in.' An unknown girl who comes to Manhattan from Brooklyn (and becomes a star a few years later). How did she do that?," the writer recalled.

As he researched the New York theater and nightclub and TV scenes of the early 1960s, Mann saw that it was an era when "talent" was still paramount.

"It wouldn't be possible to recreate what she did in the early 60s now. Nearly every major (new) singer of the last 10 or 15 years has been gorgeous and they sell sex as well as talent. Obviously, that was something Barbra did not have going for her," Mann said.

Many of today's stars seem more interested in fame than the real substance of their work. "What drives them is the pursuit of the spotlight rather than excellence," he said, adding that Streisand's first priority has always been the work she does, not the trappings of celebrity.

"Hello, Gorgeous" shows us that the Brooklynite arrived in Manhattan at the perfect time. The 1960s had just started. Revolutionary talents of varying enthnicities, such as Woody Allen, Dick Gregory and Lenny Bruce, were emerging.

John Kennedy and his charismatic wife Jackie were about to move into the White House despite a long-held belief that a Catholic would never be elected to the highest office in the land.

The changes in the cultural winds also resulted in the creation of two Broadway properties with juicy Jewish roles that would propel Streisand to stardom -- the scene-stealing secretary, Miss Marmelstein, in the 1962 musical, "I Can Get It for You Wholesale," and then the role of Fanny Brice in "Funny Girl" two years later.

Although the creators of "Funny Girl" initially considered such non-Jews as Mary Martin and Anne Bancroft for the starring role, they quickly began to see how perfect Streisand would be for the part.

One of the many myths Mann dispels in "Hello, Gorgeous" is that of "Funny Girl" producer Ray Stark having to be won over to casting Streisand when he was actually a fan right from the start. Stark knew the show would get a big boost from being the launching pad for a new star.

"She needed those two shows and they needed her," Mann said of the unique synergy of the actress and the roles she was able to play to the hilt.

"I think she had the talent and the drive to succeed, but without those shows, would she have had a career more like that of Kaye Ballard?," the writer wondered.